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Senators News: February 21st

-Ottawa plays the New York Rangers (8-6-1) tonight; the Rangers are lead by Marian Gaborik (11 points) in the absence of Rick Nash, while they are backstopped by Henrik Lundqvist (7-6-0 2.32 .915). The Sens lineup is expected to be unchanged. The attempt to hype the matchup because of last year’s playoff seems silly to me, but it’s par for the course in hockey promotion.

–Nichols believes Craig Anderson‘s level of play cannot be sustained, which given the state of Ottawa’s offence, is a worrying thought. Fortunately, the organisation has three goaltenders capable of elite play, so if Anderson does slow down there are options within to take some of the weight off his shoulders.

–Wayne Scanlan thinks the mediocrity of the Eastern Conference means the Sens have an opportunity to stay in the playoff hunt despite their injury problems.

I’m sure people have different definitions of lazy journalism but mine is when a reporter takes a recent development, forms a personal opinion on what that could possibly lead to down the road and then works backwards to ram in enough suppositions to allow for their hypothesis to become possible so they can use it as news. At no point are they able to have any party involve actually confirm any of these suppositions but the mere speculation is made to be evidence enough.

–Daniel Wagner looks at how perception shapes fans notions of who is or who isn’t a goon or a dirty player. I like the content, although I think not enough time is spent differentiating players with lengthy histories of questionable play as opposed to those who do not. Context is all important.